UCam247 video baby monitor

Rating:5

I’ve recently started using a new type of baby monitor from a UK company called UCam247 and this is my experience of using it.

I had a Fisher Price camera originally and then wanted something that allowed other members of my family (well, my mum and dad really) to be able to look in on my baby whenever they wanted to from their iPad, which has become my mum’s new focus of attention much to the chagrin of my dad…but that’s another story.

I then got another camera from a company called EyeSpy247 who make something called IP cameras – which are basically cameras you connect to your broadband router and can then access via your computer or smartphone either when you’re at home or from anywhere really. While I found the EyeSpy247 camera did everything I wanted there were some thing lacking, most importantly my ability to hear audio on my iPhone although video was fine.

EyeSpy247 were then kind enough to tell me about a new camera from a sister company (UCam247) which they said would solve the audio bugbear.

The first thing I will say about the UCam247 camera is that it was a breeze to install. I just needed to connect it to my router, download the free app on my iPhone and type in a username and password. That was it!

I then went over to my parents and installed the app on their iPad, typed in the camera username and password and low and behold we were watching the video from the camera, albeit no baby (as he was with me of course). But, we could see the video from the living room (where the camera was at that point) and we could hear the telly in the background (husband was at home watching).

I then went home and relocated the camera to the baby’s room and turned out the lights to see what the video looked like in the dark. As the camera has an infrared night mode I could see the room in complete darkness. very impressive.

We’ve now got the app installed on a variety of Apple and Android mobiles and tablets and seems to work brilliantly on all those devices.

The trickiest part of the setup was getting the camera to working wirelessly with my router. It would have been easier had I followed the neat little video tutorial UCam247 have on their YouTube site at the start. So my fault really. But in all honesty you don’t really need to watch the video – I was just impatient with getting it working

I’m not sure if the camera is actually designed as purely a baby monitor of if UCam247 thought it would be useful as one – as the camera has a lot of features which makes it just as good to use a home cctv camera. This is what we use it for when we’re out, as it has a motion sensor and the ability to record video and send email alerts – which I hope will work if we ever get broken into (though I hope we don’t of course).

The camera is very light and compact and comes with its own stand but as I said, because I don’t think it was originally designed as a just a baby monitor, it perhaps doesn’t look as well designed in its looks compared with some other baby monitors but it does the job, and more, and that’s what most important for me.

Pros

Easy to use

iPhone friendly

Remotely viewable

Works as a home cctv camera

Sends motion alerts

Night vision

Cons

Could have better looks

Stand could be sturdier

Verdict

Overall, I was very impressed by the UCam247i – mostly because I was doubtful initially about how well it could deliver on what it promised as in my experience IP based cameras can be a little tricky to setup because some require complex networking such as port forwarding and DDNS.

This camera really did work out of the box in the way their marketing describes.